Thailand's Bitkub crypto exchange mulls Hong Kong IPO: Bloomberg

Bitkub, Thailand's largest crypto exchange, is mulling a potential initial public offering in Hong Kong, according to a Bloomberg report citing sources familiar with the matter.

One of the sources reportedly said that Bitkub may launch the Hong Kong IPO as early as next year, with a target of raising $200 million. Details remain subject to change, the report added.

The company had considered going public in its home country, but appears to have shelved that plan given the significant underperformance of Thailand's stock market. The SET Index, which tracks the performance of all common stocks listed on the Thai stock exchange, is down 24.9% year-to-date, according to Google Finance data .

In February 2024, Bitkub CEO Jirayut Srupsrisopa told shareholders in a letter that the company is exploring a potential IPO in Hong Kong to boost its global visibility.

"We are committed to expanding our reach beyond Thailand, venturing into new markets with our innovative solutions," Jirayut had said in the letter. 

Meanwhile, Hong Kong has been putting efforts to expand the region's presence as a global crypto hub. Hong Kong was one of the first markets to debut its own spot crypto exchange-traded funds after the success in the U.S., and even moved ahead of the U.S. in launching spot Solana ETFs.

Hong Kong's financial authorities have laid out a crypto licensing regime and sandbox frameworks for stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits over recent years, and announced earlier this month that it will enable local crypto trading platforms to share a global order book with overseas trading platforms.